


long distance relationship blues

by lethandralis



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Enthusiastic Consent, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Phone Sex, Porn with Feelings, Riding, Sexting, Trans Characters, borderlands 3-ish time i don't know i just wanted to write some nasty, porn with just the teeny tiniest bit of plot. if you squint you can see it., rhys has a fancy new dick and a boyfriend who ought to try it out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 04:16:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20186122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lethandralis/pseuds/lethandralis
Summary: they've got an arrangement going, and it works pretty well, but rhys can beawfully needy.[this is based on a comment that i got onwho wants to bang a bazillionaire?from sierra! thank you sierra, this was a delight to work on.]





	long distance relationship blues

He’s busy when he gets Rhys’ message. He thinks Rhys ought to be busy, too – it’s the middle of the week, and there ought to be all kinds of Atlas CEO stuff going on that he should attend to. But the message had popped up on his ECHOcomm all the same.

> Sweetheart,
> 
> When you came to visit me last we barely got to play around. Why don’t you come back up and I can really show you a good time? Transport’s ready at your beck and call.
> 
> <3
> 
> -Rhys

Vaughn finds a spare moment to respond about an hour later, after losing a lot of bullets and a minimal amount of blood.

> hey i’m busy sorry, talk later?

The response is almost instantaneous, as Vaughn is gathering up what he can salvage from a cleared-out enemy encampment.

> You’re positive?
> 
> [ ATTACHMENT: HELLO.PNG. DOWNLOAD? Y/N ]

Vaughn hits yes and it’s – oh, _wow_, okay, this is where Rhys wants to go with this. It’s a picture, and the strange thing is that Vaughn has no idea how Rhys could have possibly taken it, because he’s stark naked and touching himself but without a hand to spare to hold a camera. But he looks amazing, blush spilling down to his chest, tense in all the right places.

Alright. He can work with that.

> hmmmm. that depends. what did you have in mind?
> 
> (actually, literally busy tho, sorry)

He catches the next reply as he’s organizing his supplies back home, a few hours later. Figures – ECHOnet reception tends to cut out in the badlands.

> You stay safe for me out there.
> 
> I wanted to play around with this fun new toy you got to meet last time. You wanna ride it, maybe? Show me what it can do? Nobody’s gotten the chance to, yet.

Vaughn has a little bit, now – it’s nightfall, and he’s got an important meeting in the morning with a supplier for his settlement, but for now there’s nothing to do but pass time. He dials Rhys’ number, and it rings twice before he picks up.

“Are you coming up, or what?” asks Rhys, impatient but a little sultry around the edges, still trying to flirt.

“Hi, Rhys. No, not yet. I have to meet with a supplier tomorrow morning—” he hears Rhys start and cuts him off, “_no,_ it can’t be rescheduled, this isn’t a conference room sign-up sheet. I’ll be there tomorrow. But I have a little time now, and I wanted to talk.”

Rhys grumbles, devoid of malice but still antsy. Rhys must have him on speaker, because he hears something stiff click to the side of the phone, like Rhys has just put his feet up on his desk. “Alright. Thanks for getting back to me. What do you wanna talk about?”

They start in easy, talking about their days. Apparently Rhys’ office at Atlas HQ is undergoing repairs after a pipe in the wall busted, so he can’t take meetings or use his computer or do pretty much anything useful, and he’s getting antsy. Vaughn asks how long the repairs will take.

“A week, maybe two. Apparently the pipe that blew had all kinds of nasty shit in it, so they’re replacing a lot.”

“_So_, what you’re saying is that when I come up there and run you ragged, you’ll have some time to recover?”

Rhys laughs, a nervous little titter. Caught off-guard. “Oh, so _that’s_ what you wanted to talk about.”

“That was a nice picture you sent me, Rhys. I enjoyed it.”

“There’s more where that came from.”

“Rhys, I think tonight I just wanna talk.” He hears Rhys huff out a little breath of indignation on the other end and grins.

“Fine,” grumbles Rhys, and Vaughn can _hear_ him pouting. How adorable.

“Where are you?”

“In my office, at home.”

“Anybody else there?”

“No.”

“Hmm. Tell me, Rhys, what were you thinking about doing with that pretty cock of yours tomorrow?”

Rhys breathes out a shaky little sigh on the other end. “I want you to ride it. I know that’s not… historically how we’ve done things, but I wanna make you feel good.”

“That sounds really nice, Rhys. You think it would feel good for you, too?”

Vaughn can just barely make out the _click_ of Rhys swallowing hard. “Yeah. I mean I’ve… jacked off and stuff with it, and that feels good, and holy _shit_ did it feel good when you sucked me off last time, so. I think it would feel pretty fuckin’ outstanding.”

Vaughn _grins_, undoing his gloves. “Keep talking, Rhys.”

* * *

The transport ship that arrives for Vaughn is a handsome little thing, red and blue and black and manned by a terse but polite woman who flies fast and steady. There’s a seating area and a few closed doors behind the cockpit.

“My boss said he left somethin’ for you in the bathroom?” says the pilot, unsure, about halfway into the two hour flight. “I dunno. He just now called and told me to tell you.”

Vaughn shrugs and opens the door to the bathroom, bracing himself for whatever horrendous thing Rhys has laid out for him.

He finds on the vanity a neatly folded change of clothes, a towel, and a note, in familiar slanted handwriting.

> _You’re never really dressed for Promethea, are you? I hope these fit!_
> 
> _(Please shower. I love you, but please shower.)_

Vaughn chuckles, wondering how the hell he can afford transport ships with _showers_, and gets undressed.

The water pressure in the shower is lackluster, but it works (and, okay, he did have quite a bit of dirt on him), and when he climbs out he feels warm and safe in a way he’s not used to. The clothes, too, are nice – they’re soft and loose and not at all claustrophobic, and he doesn’t look half bad. He spends longer than he probably should fussing with his hair in the mirror.

By the time he’s out they’ve almost landed on the airstrip near Rhys’ penthouse. It feels absurd to think that this is _his_ airstrip, connected to _his_ twenty-sixth floor penthouse, but whatever. It’s probably still the same lovable dipshit under all the glass and imported silk.

Rhys is leaning on a fence at the airstrip, flipping through something on his palm-display, looking impatient. Whatever he’s looking at seems important, but he drops it the moment the door to the transport ship _clunks_ open.

“Ruby!” he hollers, hopping the fence. “Did you bring me my man?”

Ruby makes a show of presenting Vaughn as they exit the transport, like he’s some sort of visiting foreign dignitary. Vaughn bows low.

“_That’s_ why you’re my favorite, Ruby. Thank you.” Rhys extends a hand and Ruby shakes it firmly.

“Anytime, boss. Good to meet you, Vaughn,” says Ruby, and then she’s turned on her heel and gone back to the ship. Rhys strides right into Vaughn’s personal space and grabs his face, appraising him.

“You clean up _nice._”

“Thanks. I like the clothes.” Vaughn gets his hands around Rhys’ waist and gives him a kiss on the lips.

“Better than the sweater?”

“Better than the sweater.”

Rhys makes an excited gesture before leaning back in for another kiss. Vaughn laughs into it.

Vaughn is led up to Rhys’ penthouse with a hand on the small of his back as Rhys talks animatedly about the project he’s _just itching_ to resume once the repairs are completed.

“It’s gonna be _legendary_, man, I’m telling you,” he says, punching in a passcode and scanning his thumbprint in the elevator. “A whole new kind of artificial intelligence.”

Vaughn smiles up at him fondly. “I’m glad to hear you’re keeping busy.”

“Oh, I’m _keeping busy_, alright,” he says, waggling his eyebrows in that awful way that he does, and Vaughn snorts and rolls his eyes.

“You’re disgusting.”

“You love me.”

“I do.”

When they get up to the right floor, Rhys makes a phone call to somebody and informs them that he definitely won’t be in today and tomorrow, which sends a little shiver of anticipation up Vaughn’s spine. Whoever he’s talking to apparently has a lot of questions for him, because Vaughn has some time to himself to take in the place.

It’s a nice place, objectively, even if the opulence of it does turn Vaughn off. Wood floors, sleek furniture, a view of the city and the strange perpetual sunset. It’s a long way away from the shoeboxes they lived in on Helios so long ago.

But this is the life Rhys had talked about wanting, all the way back to when they first met. Luxury, wealth, being in charge, having power. It suits him, maybe. He’s not sure yet. Vaughn takes a seat on the couch, carefully keeping his dusty boots away from anything that looks too expensive.

Rhys joins him on the couch several minutes later. “I thought you hated heights?” Vaughn asks, conversational.

“Oh, no, I definitely do. I try not to, uh, get close to the windows. But this place belonged to the last guy who was in charge, so I guess it’s mine now, and the real estate market here is _atrocious_. I installed curtains, though – check this out.” He snaps a robotic finger and black drapes descend from the ceiling all the way down to the floor. Vaughn whistles.

“_Fancy_.”

Rhys beams. “I know, right? Man, I got so much cool shit up here I gotta show you, it’s great.” He looks tired in this light, older, but he’s still overflowing with enthusiasm, same as ever. Vaughn grabs him by the cheek and kisses him for a moment.

“Why don’t you show me what I came here to see?”

Rhys grins, all teeth and sunshine. “You’re the _best_.”

* * *

Vaughn backs him back up towards the foot of the bed, and as Rhys is impatiently grabbing at Vaughn’s hand and dragging it towards his crotch, Vaughn pulls back.

“Alright, man, sure, but you gotta explain to me how this thing actually works.”

This cute look of frustration passes across Rhys’ face, probably because he _really likes_ talking about his tech, but he also _really likes_ getting railed. “So it’s, uh, proprietary.” _Proprietary_ sounds to Vaughn like a delicate way of saying _I made myself a dick because I was lonely and wanted to jack off differently_, but he lets Rhys continue. ”It works on the same principle that my arm works on – my body tells it what’s going on, and it has a set way that it responds. It has a sensor array around my clit, and based on changes in temperature and bloodflow, it responds according to an algorithm.”

“Huh,” says Vaughn, genuinely. “Can you take it off?”

Rhys nods. “It’s magnetically mounted – dermal piercings _hurt_, by the way, damn, but yeah. I don’t usually wear it, just because it’s awkward and gets in the way, you know?”

“Makes sense. And you can feel… stuff?”

“Yeah! It has a series of… well, hold on, let me show you.” And with that he’s taking his pants off, and then his underwear, and his cock comes off with a strange _click_. He holds it between them. “So it’s connected to my ECHOeye, and I can, uh, tell it to do things if I want to, but I can also just kind of have it get hard the old fashioned way.”

He tilts it and there’s a series of fine silicone cylinders near the front on the inside. “This is what makes me able to feel it. Watch.” He slides an index finger up along the shaft and the cylinders respond, a neat little row of them rising and falling in time, perfectly synchronized. “The whole thing’s heated when it’s in fully-operational mode, so it’s not just like… I dunno, like a weird vibrator or something.”

“Neat. You like it?”

“I… well, to be honest with you, I’ve barely gotten a chance to try it out. It’s nice to jack off with, sure, but it’s just… not quite the same.” He grins, a little devilish. “But you’re gonna help me test it out, huh?”

“What, you thought I was gonna come all this way just to _look at it_? Come on.”

Rhys laughs, genuine and full-bodied, and then they’re kissing. Vaughn tries to be sexy and get Rhys’ cock situated again, but the angle is all wrong and there’s a bit that goes in him, apparently, so Rhys has to pull back and stand up to get the angle right. Vaughn takes the opportunity to get his own shirt off.

“Hey,” says Rhys, looking ridiculous because he’s still in his shirt and necktie and vest but no pants. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re _super fucking hot_?” Vaughn grins.

“Maybe.”

“Because you are. Unfairly so.” He starts tugging at the belt loops on Vaughn’s pants, so Vaughn starts going after the buttons on his vest. “And you’re still wearing pants, and I _hate_ that.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” says Vaughn, not meaning it, as he gets through the last button on the vest. He starts in on gently removing Rhys’ necktie when Rhys palms at his ass roughly, making him lose his train of thought.

“_Impatient_,” he chides, but he takes the hint and shimmies out of his pants. Rhys all but beams at him as he takes off his own shirt. Vaughn puts one hand on the center of Rhys’ chest and pushes him backwards, just barely, and he flops down onto the bed.

“So,” says Vaughn, getting situated over Rhys’ hips in the center of the bed. “How does _this_ feel?” His hips rock, carefully and slowly, against Rhys’. He groans in response.

“_Do that again,_” demands Rhys, breathless, and when Vaughn does so his hands go into his hair and his back arches beautifully. Vaughn does it once more for good measure, slow and languid, shuddering a bit when the head of Rhys’ cock brushes against his clit.

“Holy shit please ride me,” Rhys says, so fast that it’s almost all one word. Vaughn grins down at him, wolfish.

“I’m getting there.”

At Vaughn’s instruction, Rhys gets comfortable with his head on the pillows, and Vaughn settles in, laying on his stomach between Rhys’ legs. He drags a finger up the underside of his cock, then back down, and then pulls away completely.

“Are you trying to get me to beg? Because I might, at this point, really.” Rhys says, sounding breathless. “You want me to eat you out again? What are you waiting for, _oh my god_—” he’s cut off when Vaughn plants a wet kiss on the head of his cock and then licks up the underside.

“I’m taking my time, Rhys,” says Vaughn, leaning his head onto Rhys’ thigh. “We don’t get to see each-other much anymore, y’know? I want to savor it.”

And then he’s out from between Rhys’ legs and kissing him, languid and slow. Rhys responds hungrily, grasping wherever he can reach. He has half a mind to pin Rhys’ wrists before Rhys gets a hand under him and presses two fingers along the length of his clit. His hips stutter involuntarily. Rhys keeps going, pressure just this side of too light.

“You like that?” he asks when Vaughn pulls up to groan. He’s grinning like he’s won the lottery. This isn’t where Vaughn had intended things would go, clearly, but he’s been itching to get off all day and Rhys’ fingers are calloused and warm and clever as they always have been. So he leans into it, grinds his pubic bone down into the heel of Rhys’ hand.

“You’re so good,” he says, by way of a response. “I’m gonna run you fucking ragged after this.” Rhys groans, unrestrained and loud. His two fingers tease along the opening to Vaughn’s cunt and earn him a satisfied shiver.

“Hey, hey,” says Rhys after a minute or so of teasing. “Lay down. My wrist’s cramping.” Vaughn raises an eyebrow at him but complies – obviously he’s used to being the one in charge here, but this feels _damn good_ and he can’t begrudge his best friend for a bad angle. He lays back and gets comfortable.

With their positions changed, Rhys gets the angle just right on the first go, inserting his fingers and curling them gently. Vaughn draws in a shaking breath and lets it out with a moan. Rhys builds up a rhythm, thumb brushing rhythmically over Vaughn’s clit as his fingers tense and relax. He looks dazed, proud, a little boastful, and Vaughn thinks he needs to take that out of him, so he drags him down by the hair and kisses him violently.

The heat of Rhys’ chest against his and the rhythm of his fingers and the taste of his tongue is all a little bit too much for Vaughn, and he’s shivering and moaning and coming just a few minutes later. Rhys works him right through it, open mouth worrying at his throat.

When he comes back to, Rhys is grinning at him.

“Pretty good, huh?”

Vaughn wants to be an asshole about it, but he also doesn’t think he can move his legs right now. “Yeah. Well done.” He runs a hand through Rhys’ hair, who in turn leans into the touch with a smile. “Gonna get you back for that. Uh, once I can move.”

It takes Vaughn about five minutes to feel like he’s a functional human being again. He informs Rhys of this by kissing him aggressively and straddling his hips. Rhys seems caught off-guard in the best way, moving his hands and his hips like he’s struggling with what to focus on. Vaughn pulls back and rocks his hips downward.

“You ready for the main event?” Rhys nods like his life depends on it.

Vaughn requires very little preparation – he’s still soaking wet and his nerves are _on fire_. The head of Rhys’ cock just barely nudges his entrance and his thighs tense up. He takes it slowly. It's easy to revel in the sensation.

When Vaughn gets seated fully he has to take a moment to breathe. Rhys is rocking his hips upward in these tiny little movements and he’s still oversensitive and overheated, head spinning. His eyes are closed when he feels Rhys’ hands on his hips, insistent fingers digging in.

“Talk to me,” says Vaughn. Rhys is breathing in a way that seems very controlled.

“You – god, I can’t even describe it, Vaughn, you feel so good. I’m gonna go crazy. Please move.” Rhys sounds so genuine that it almost tugs at Vaughn’s heart.

Vaughn starts moving, slowly. “I’m not gonna last long.”

“Me – _shit_ – me either.”

He gets a rhythm going, slow and deliberate, and just as he feels like he’s on it Rhys gets his fingers on his clit again. His movements hesitate, breath hitching. _Holy fucking shit_, he's on fire, every nerve is firing off and it all feels so good that he thinks he might be losing his mind. He’s only vaguely aware of his climax happening until it’s already on top of him, shooting up his spine and taking his breath away. Rhys puts a hand on his ribcage to steady him as he rides it out, moaning low in his throat.

Rhys is wide-eyed underneath him, red from his ears to his chest. Once he feels like he can, Vaughn pulls almost all the way up and then comes back down and Rhys moans gorgeously. He’s almost there. It hurts a little bit, but the good and electric kind of hurt that Vaughn can handle for just a minute, baby, _oh god you're so good for me, come on..._

When Rhys comes, it’s with a shout that sounds like it’s been torn out from somewhere deep inside him. It’s drawn out, his eyes fluttering shut and his back arching and Vaughn wishes like hell he could just hold the sight of it forever and ever. It takes Rhys longer than usual to come down from it, and he’s rocking his hips up into Vaughn and mumbling something that’s not quite intelligible, and if Vaughn hadn’t already come twice he’d be right there on the edge again, _holy shit_. He keeps working his hips until Rhys shoves at him clumsily, on his right hipbone, and mumbles something that sounds like “stop”. He pulls off and shivers a little. Rhys is quiet, eyes half-lidded and glazed.

“You good?” Vaughn asks, because usually Rhys is bragging about his sexual prowess or something right about now.

There’s a pause as Rhys stares at the ceiling. “Uh, yeah, sorry, just trying to figure out if it’s sad or awesome that I’ve had the best sex of my life just now, in my thirties.” He turns his head and grins at Vaughn, and while Vaughn still isn’t sure what he thinks of the mustache he just _can’t stand_ how cute he is. “That was great. Thank you.”

Vaughn kisses him because of course he does, he has to. After that they lay there for a while, catching their breath, holding hands, taking it in. It's the middle of the afternoon, but exhaustion overtakes them anyway. He isn’t sure how long they doze off for, but when he wakes up Rhys is grinning at him, a hand in his hair.

“I love you,” says Rhys.

“I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> **[** edit 14 sept 2019: bl3 is out! this is not canon compliant because i wrote it speculatively before the game was out (or even before we had a bunch of the trailers). i'm not fixing it because 1) i'm lazy, and 2) it's porn. i do want to write some things that are actually bl3 compliant, though! stay tuned if that's your jam. **]**
> 
> * * *
> 
> thank you again to the lovely sierra for giving me such a wonderful suggestion on my last fic! i couldn't _not_ write this.  
i've been taking some requests lately! hit me up on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ceruleanspruce) and maybe i will write something for you, too. or just come say hi! i post a lot of pictures of my dogs.


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